from both.  Dr. Johnson says, (inaccurately indeed,) “A has three sounds, the slender, [the] open, and [the] broad. A slender is found in most words, as face, mane. A open is the a of the Italian, or nearly resembles it; as father, rather, congratulate, fancy, glass. A broad resembles the a of the German; as all, wall, call. [fist] The short a approaches to the a open, as grass.”—­Johnson’s Grammar, in his Quarto Dictionary, p. 1.  Thus the same word, grass, that serves Johnson for an example of “the short a” is used by Wells and Worcester to exemplify the “a intermediate;” while of the Doctor’s five instances of what he calls the “a open,” three, if not four, are evidently such as nearly all readers nowadays would call close or short!

OBS. 7.—­There are several grammarians who agree in ascribing to our first vowel five sounds, but who nevertheless oppose one an other in making up the five.  Thus, according to Hart, “A has five sounds of its own, as in fate, fare, far, fall, fat,”—­Hart’s E. Gram., p. 26.  According to W. Allen, “A has five sounds;—­the long or slender, as in cane; the short or open, as in can; the middle, as in arm; the broad, as in all; and the broad contracted, as in want.”—­Allen’s E. Gram., p. 6.  P. Davis has the same sounds in a different order, thus:  “a [as in] mane, mar, fall, mat, what.”—­Davis’s E. Gram., p. xvi.  Mennye says, “A has five sounds; as, 1 fame, 2 fat, 3 false, 4 farm, 5 beggar.”—­Mennye’s E. Gram., p. 55.  Here the fifth sound is the seventh of Worcester,—­the “A obscure.”

DIPHTHONGS BEGINNING WITH A.

The only proper diphthong in which a is put first, is the word ay, meaning yes:  in which a has its middle sound, as in ah, and y is like open e, or ee, uttered feebly—­ah-ee. Aa, when pronounced as an improper diphthong, and not as pertaining to two syllables, usually takes the sound of close a; as in Balaam, Canaan, Isaac.  In many words, as in Baael, Gaael, Gaaesh, the diaeresis occurs.  In baa, the cry of a sheep, we hear the Italian sound of a; and, since we hear it but once, one a or the other must be silent.

AE, a Latin improper diphthong, common also in the Anglo-Saxon, generally has, according to modern orthoepists, the sound of open e or ee; as in Caesar, aenigma, paean;—­sometimes that of close or short e; as in aphaeresis, diaeresis, et caetera.  Some authors, judging the a of this diphthong to be needless, reject it, and write Cesar, enigma, &c.